Viridian Winds
by Puph 17
Summary: Whitley can't seem to let go of her past with Team Plasma. Yellow takes the time to talk her through it.


**Author's Note: For the benefit of future readers, this was written before the end of B2W2 was released. **

* * *

It was a warm summer day in Viridian Forest. The sun peeked through the tangled branches and expansive leaves, illuminating small patches of ground on the forest floor. Various Normal and Bug type Pokémon scurried around, foraging for food and squabbling over small nuts that had fallen to the forest floor. It was peaceful, with the wind blowing gently through the canopy, tousling the leaves and branches of the trees.

At the base of one of the trees, Whitley woke up with a start when a nut fell out of a tree and struck her on the top of the head. She jumped and looked around her. Yellow appeared to be sketching the river that sprawled in front of her as she awaited a bite on her fishing line, leaning up against a large picnic basket. Wally was rummaging in his backpack for something. He eventually produced a flute case and stowed his cherished glass flute, which he'd been cleaning. He'd been playing it earlier – had Whitley fallen asleep to the melody? She must have.

Yellow smiled. "Oh! You're back with us! How was your nap?"

Whitley slowly pulled herself to a sitting position. "Ugh… I slept well, but I'm really stiff now…"

Yellow giggled, "Ah, I forgot. You're not used to napping on the ground. Should have given you one of the picnic blankets."

"Oh, don't worry about it. It's no problem," said Whitley, stretching her sore legs and arms.

"Still, it's perfect weather! What a wonderful day for fishing, sketching and napping!" mused Yellow.

The clearing fell silent again. Yellow was right. It was a wonderful day. Whitley rummaged in her backpack, looking for her Pokenav. While not a proper vista, she wanted to take a few pictures of the area for a screen saver. A flash of metal caught her eye. She froze. It was her locket. The one with the picture of King N. The one she kept as a keepsake. No. She needed to put all of that behind her. She … just needed more time before she was ready to get rid of it. She zipped up her backpack, picture forgotten.

Wally pulled himself to his feet. "I'm gonna go stretch my legs for a bit. I'll be back!"

Yellow and Whitley waved as he sauntered off into the woods. It left Whitley with her thoughts again as Yellow began to hum a happy tune to herself as she continued to sketch.

Whitley sighed and shifted herself, trying to make her seating more comfortable. It had been a strange day. It was the second out of three days of the annual Dexholder Reunion. All of the dexholders had returned to Pallet Town and after the customary festivities on the first day, they had split up into small groups to do what they enjoyed most. For instance, Red and Green had gone with Sapphire and Black to the battling arena with some of the others for an epic showdown, and Blue had gone shopping with Ruby, Platinum and White. But Yellow had specifically asked her and Wally to go with her to her favorite fishing hole in Viridian Forest.

Whitley flopped over on the grass. She understood why Yellow wanted to be here. It was her favorite fishing spot. Whitley didn't blame her. It was a beautiful spot. She also understood why Wally was here. Though his lungs had improved tremendously since the Hoenn Magma and Aqua incident, he still preferred clean air. This preference for open, natural spaces with clean air had fostered a strong friendship with Yellow, who liked to frequent the same forested environments.

What she couldn't figure out was why she was there. Sure, she enjoyed nature just as much as anyone else, but she didn't know why Yellow had specifically brought her along. It made her nervous. Was it because of her background in Team Plasma? Did Yellow not like her and was planning on chewing her out for her role in Team Plasma? No, that didn't seem to fit the gentle girl's personality. Did the others not like her and Yellow had just brought her along to keep her out of everybody else's hair? It was totally that. It had to be. Why else would she just bring her along?

An even worse thought came to her. What if they though she was their enemy and were keeping tabs on her? A shiver ran down her spine.

"Hey Whitley?" said Yellow.

Whitley gulped. Moment of truth. "Y-yeah?"

"You feeling all right? You look like you just had a panic attack there!" said Yellow. "Don't worry! You're among friends!"

"I… I know…" said Whitley.

Yellow frowned. "Oh no…this is about the whole Team Plasma thing, isn't it?"

"What!? How did… no it's not… it's just… uh…" sputtered Whitley.

Yellow's face fell. "Oh no! Don't tell me the others have been bringing it up!"

"No, they haven't, it's just that I… I…"

Yellow nodded. "It's been weighing on your mind. Your time at Team Plasma and how people see you now."

Whitley froze in shock. How did she know? She remained silent. She knew exactly what kind of backlash Team Plasma had received after they had been taken down by Black and White. She hadn't expected to eventually ally with those very same people. But they hadn't been so bad, once she'd met them. And they also supported Team Plasma's true ideals, which had been reformed and reinstated after Ghestis had been outed. But not that many people would accept that.

"You joined Team Plasma because you wanted to help Pokémon, right?"

"Y…yeah."

"That's a noble cause, you know!" said Yellow cheerfully.

"But, Ghestis..." started Whitley.

"Ghestis doesn't define you. You signed up because of N and what he said, right?"

Whitley nodded, too nervous to speak.

"That means that you joined Team Plasma to help Pokémon. I don't agree with Team Plasma's methods at all, but you're at least coming from a good place!"

"But… nobody sees that…

Yellow shook her head. "They should. You're clearly different. You stayed with the original Team Plasma, helped them reform their ideals, and you've made the world a better place by helping Pokémon! You've worked really hard alongside us dexholders to make a lot of good happen! White told me how many missions you take with law enforcement! You've proven yourself!"

Whitley sat stock still, but Yellow was right. The dexholders worked frequently with law enforcement as extra muscle. Since the dexholders had made a habit of working more closely with the police, stings had become much more successful, and great strides had been made to quell illegal Pokémon trafficking and illegal breeding pits.

"You've been working really hard supporting the Unova Police Force, haven't you?" said Yellow.

"Well…" She _had_ been present for a lot of those stings. She couldn't just abandon those Pokémon in need. She absolutely had to be there. It would go against her ideals to not help out when she could. She had even gone on an illegal Pokémon trafficking sting while sick. With a temperature of 105, a throbbing headache and aching legs, she'd showed up alongside Black, White, Blake and Senior Green to assist in rounding up one of the largest illegal Pokémon trafficking rings that had been arrested to date. It was her duty. She'd barely gotten away with it too. Senior Green was very sharp and had definitely suspected that she wasn't feeling 100%. Blake's vigilant detective senses had also almost seen through her façade as well. Thankfully, the two had been preoccupied with the mission and hadn't said anything. She'd literally collapsed onto her bed when she'd gotten home, hours later. But it had been worth it.

Yellow said, "Listen, Whitley. You may have gotten in with the wrong crowd in the past. But you've made your own path away from them and you're one of us now! You've put all of that behind you!"

It was a good point. But Whitley had more questions.

"But what about King N? You can speak to Pokémon too. Why don't you agree with him?"

Yellow sighed. Ratty scampered up to her with a few berries in its hands.

"For us?" asked Yellow. Ratty nodded vigorously and Yellow took one, smiling proudly. Ratty shuffled up to Whitley shyly and held them out to her. Hesitantly, Whitley took one and petted Ratty on the head.

"Thank you, Ratty! Why don't you go give one to Wally? Make sure that he hasn't wandered off too far and gotten lost?" asked Yellow.

Ratty nodded and squeaked happily before wandering off into the forest again to find Wally.

Yellow turned back to Whitley.

"N… I've seen the world differently than he did, and because of that, I came to very different conclusions then he did. First of all, he told me that Ghesis had only told him about evil trainers."

"You've _spoken_ to him!?" gasped Whitley.

"Oh, I never told you? I'm so sorry! I should have told you!"

"No, no, no! It's all right! But when did you see him?"

"Several months ago. He passed through here on a journey to discover himself. I think he'd lost a lot of faith in himself after what happened in Unova, especially with Ghestis. He'd heard of Viridian trainers who could speak to Pokémon and wanted the chance to talk with one. I actually ran into him when he got lost," giggled Yellow.

"Really?" asked Whitley, surprised.

"Yup. Caught him trying to get directions back to Viridian City from a Weedle. Made quite the impression," said Yellow with a warm smile on her face, fondly recalling the memory.

Whitley was speechless.

"Anyway, he told me about his background. How Ghestis had brought him up and how he'd been lied to about the nature of the bond between Trainers and Pokémon. Ghestis apparently told him that most trainers beat and abuse their Pokémon on a regular basis for fun. As this lie had been shattered for him, he said that he was on a quest to find what the truth was. And to do that, he was looking to talk to a Viridian trainer with similar powers to his, hoping to gain a better understanding of Pokémon and the world at large."

"And?" asked Whitley.

"We talked for several hours."

"And?"

"Well, I explained my points. He seemed…lost when we met. Like he was questioning everything he ever believed in. Well, he _was_ questioning a lot of things when we started talking. I just hope that what I told him helped him."

"What did you say?" asked Whitley.

"Well, I'll spare you the long version with full length examples, but basically, I told him that the bond between Pokémon and humans is a beautiful thing worth protecting! Pokémon and humans both benefit tremendously from the way things are. Of course, there are bad trainers, poachers and bad actors. We should be doing a better job trying to catch these people and making sure that they can't do more bad things, but there's no need to abolish the current system just yet! It's not so broken that it can't be repaired, and nothing's perfect anyway! Take your Foongus for example. She loves you! I don't even have to talk to her to know that much!"

"I… she does?" said Whitley. Foongy rattled in her Pokeball. Whitley looked down to see the Pokémon jumping up and down with a giant smile on its face.

"She adores you, Whitley! You're one of the best trainers a Pokémon could ask for! You love and care for your Pokémon like they're your own children! You're her friend who has stuck with her through thick and thin, and she'll stick with you through thick and thin! That's the kind of bond that you can build as a trainer! That's the kind of bond that I want to preserve! You can't have that in a world without humans or Pokémon! You need to have both!"

"You… really think so?" asked Whitley. "They… this is so different from what they told us…"

"Just like Ratty! I met him a long time ago and we've been friends ever since! I used to sing him to sleep. You know that?"

"Really?" giggled Whitley.

"Yup. I still do, if I have the time. I try to do it for my entire team as often as I can. It's a good way to bond with them!"

There was a pause. Whitley wanted to believe Yellow. She really did. But…there was still one more thing.

"But… Team Plasma did the wrong thing even if some of us wanted to do the right thing…" said Whitley. "Doesn't… that count for something? Against us?"

Yellow paused for a second, thoughful. "I guess it does. But not everybody who stands on any side of a debate does it for bad reasons. You took a side for a good reason, even though it turned out to be the bad side. But you didn't let that stop you. When Team Plasma fell, and all of the lies they fed you were revealed to be lies, you took the opportunity to separate yourself from the bad people, refined and improved your ideals, and you _made_ something out of it! I'm really proud of you, actually! You took what was used for evil and made it into a force for good!"

"Really?" asked Whitley.

"Of course, you are! As your senior, I am _very,_ really, extremely proud of you!"

Yellow's face was beaming with happiness. Whitley couldn't believe it. Her? The Team Plasma grunt?

Yellow put her hands on Whitley's shoulders. "Listen. No more of this nonsense about us dexholders not liking you because you were part of Team Plasma. You are one of us, and you are a valuable member of the dexholders. Are we clear?"

"Y… yes."

"Now. We're going to enjoy ourselves today and have a good time. All right?"

Whitley smiled, her doubts cleared. "All right."

Yellow looked up to the sky. The sun had risen to almost overhead, and its warm rays beat down more strongly then they had before.

"Oh goodness! It's time for lunch!"

She turned and reached for the picnic basket.

"Now thankfully, we've got decent sandwiches this time. Last time, Green got food for all of us, and the sandwiches were really crummy. He's too attached to the size of his wallet sometimes," said Yellow matter of factly.

A rustling was heard in the bushes. Ratty sprang from the brush, Wally following close behind him.

"Oh, Wally! Just in time for lunch!"

Whitley smiled, finally relaxing as Wally sat down and Yellow continued to dig into the basket, producing more sandwiches, a jar of pickles and a large bag of chips. The wind ruffled her hair. She could enjoy it now, freed from the worry of her internal monologue and enjoying the company of her fellow dexholders.

It was good to be among friends.


End file.
